EDITORIAL Open Access

Report on the UNESCO Chair 2019 fieldschool on Geoenvironmental DisasterReduction in Shimane University, JapanFawu Wang1,3* , Miguel Clüsener-Godt2 and Zili Dai3

Abstract

On 14–18 March 2019, the UNESCO Chair 2019 Field School on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction has beenheld in Shimane University, Japan. The field school comprised two-day field work and three-day academic lectures.Thirty three graduate students from China, Italy, Nepal, Indonesia, France, and Japan participated, and 14 visitingprofessors from China, Italy, Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Russia, Indonesia and Japan were invited to giveacademic lectures on the topic of geoenvironmental disasters reduction.

Keywords: Field school, Training course, UNESCO chair, Geo-disaster reduction

IntroductionUNESCO Chair on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduc-tion was established between UNESCO and ShimaneUniversity on 1 April 2018. The headquarter of the chairis located in the Center for Natural Disaster ReductionResearch and Education, Shimane University, with thecooperation of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR). The mission of the Chair isto promote education and research for the reduction ofgeoenvironmental disasters, in order to improve the rela-tionship between environment and society.As one of the main education missions of the UNESCO

Chair, the 2019 Field School on Geoenvironmental DisasterReduction was held on 14–18 March 2019 in Shimane,Japan. 14 visiting professors and 33 graduate students fromdifferent countries participated this field school, as well asthe staffs in Shimane University. The field school com-prised two-day field work and three-day academic lectures.The World Heritage site Iwami Silver Mine, Mt.Sanbe and Hiikawa River system were investigatedduring the field work. A total of 14 academic lecturesconcerning geoenvironmental disaster reduction wereprovided by the visiting professors and the Chairholder in

the lecture section. Through the field school, the studentsgained the knowledge about the mechanism, monitoringmethodology, prediction technique, and mitigationmethods of a variety of geoenvironmental disasters.

Field worksThe training course started with the field work in IwamiSilver Mine, a historic silver mine located in Oda City,Shimane Prefecture. This silver mine was built in 1526and was the most important mining site in Japan. It waslisted as a World Cultural Heritage site together with itsculture landscape in July 2007. The participates of thefield school visited the mineshaft and refinery ruins ofthe Iwami Silver Mine (Fig. 1), as well as the exhibitedmaterials, excavated items, replica models, and videofootage, to know the history of the mine and the miningtechnology at that time. The Omori Town, flourished asthe management base of the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine,was also visited. It is a 1.5 km long stretch of houses,shops, temples, and shrines that runs along the river val-ley to the north of the silver mines. Prof. Fawu Wangand Dr. Hideki Mukoyoshi from Shimane University in-troduced the geological setting in the Iwami Silver Minearea. An active fault crossing the silver mine area was in-vestigated, which was the main formation cause of theriver valley in the Omori Town.On 15 March 2019, a field work around Mt. Sanbe, an

active volcano in Shimane Prefecture, was carried out.

© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

* Correspondence: wangfw@riko.shimane-u.ac.jp1Department of Earth Science, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane690-8504, Japan3Center for Natural Disaster Research and Education, Shimane University,Matsue, Shimane 690-8504, JapanFull list of author information is available at the end of the article

Geoenvironmental DisastersWang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677-019-0128-6

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1186/s40677-019-0128-6&domain=pdfhttp://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-7095http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/mailto:wangfw@riko.shimane-u.ac.jp

Mt. Sanbe is a large quaternary stratovolcano, which hasproduced a large variety of effusive and pyroclastic de-posits throughout its history. Dr. Andreas Auer fromShimane University introduced the eruptive record, de-positional processes and associated hazards of the Mt.Sanbe. The participates observed a number of outcrops(Kakeya Outcrop in Fig. 2, and Shigaku Outcrop inFig. 3) from the volcanic eruption, which illustrate a var-iety of eruptive styles, pyroclast transportation and de-position, and the respective hazards. Some questionsregarding the petrology of the rocks as well as the strati-graphical record and the temporal evolution of SanbeVolcano were discussed.In the afternoon, the Sanbe-Azukihara Buried Forest

Museum in the Sanbe area was visited. It is a hidden for-est where many giant trees have been lying under the

ground due to the volcanic eruption of Mt.Sanbe around4000 years ago. More than 30 Japanese Cedar were exca-vated and now stand in the underground exhibition hall(Fig. 4). The formation cause of the buried forest wasdiscussed. Some of the deposits indicate elevated tem-peratures during emplacement suggesting primary pyro-clastic flow deposits (e.g. block and ash flow), somedeposits have been interpreted as debris avalanche de-posits (lahars).The facilities of counter measures for major floods in

the Hiikawa River system were also visited during thefield school. The Hiikawa River system has a maximumlength of 153 km from the mouth of the Sakai Straight,connecting the Nakaumi Lake and the Sea of Japan, andis the largest river system in eastern Shimane Prefecture,

Fig. 1 Group photo in front of the mineshaft of Iwami Silver Mine

Fig. 2 Investigation at Kakeya Outcrop, SW of Unnan CityFig. 3 Investigation at Shigaku Outcrop at the rim of theSanbe caldera

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 2 of 8

Japan. The Shitsumi Dam and the drainage canal con-necting the Hiikawa river and Kandogawa River werevisited (Fig. 5), both of them were constructed to controlthe flood disasters in this area.

Opening ceremonyThe opening ceremony of the field school was heldon the morning of 16 March 2019 in Shimane Uni-versity. Prof. Fawu WANG, the Chairholder of theUNESCO Chair presided the ceremony. Dr. YasunaoHATTORI, the president of Shimane University, gavea welcome speech at the beginning of the ceremony.He declared the field school to open on behalf of theorganizers, and welcomed all the distinguished visitingprofessors and energetic students from all over theworld. Mr. Mitsuhiro IKEHARA gave a congratulatoryremark on behalf of the International Affairs, Ministryof Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) and Japanese National Commission for

UNESCO. He stressed the effort of the Japanese gov-ernment to support the work on geoenvironmentaldisasters reduction and to promote the UNESCOChair. Dr. Miguel CLÜSENER GODT, the Director ofthe Division of Ecological and Earth Science,UNESCO, gave an opening speech. He introduced theDivision of Ecological and Earth Science in UNESCO,and expressed his hope that the UNESCO Chair andthe field school could improve the relationships be-tween geoenvironment and society. All of thespeeches are attached at the end of this paper. Theopening ceremony ended up with a group photo asshown in Fig. 6.

Academic lecturesIn this field school, totally 14 academic lectures wereprovided, as listed in Table 1. The topics of the academiclectures involved a variety of geoenvironmental disasters,such as earthquake, landslide, tsunami, marine geologicalhazards, and the geoenvironmental problems caused byclimatic change. The mechanism, monitoring method-ology, prediction technique, and mitigation methods ofthose disasters were introduced. Heated discussion hasalso been made after each presentation, see Fig. 7. Thestudents were divided into four groups, and each groupmade a presentation after the academic lecture sectionto show their achievements during this field school. Onebest group was selected by the professors and awardedin the farewell party.At the end of the field school, Dr. Akishiga YUKIKUNI,

the Vice President of Shimane University, issued the cer-tificate for each student who completed 40-h trainingcourse during this field school, as shown in Fig. 8. Hisclosing speech is attached at the end of this paper.After the field school, students are requested to submit

a report in free style. Form the reports, eight reportswere evaluated as “Excellent Report of the 2019UNESCO Chair Field School in Shimane”.Attachments:

1) Welcome speech by Dr. Yasunao HATTORI, thepresident of Shimane University

Dear Mr. Miguel CLÜSENER-GODT, the Director ofDivision of Ecological and Earth Science, UNESCO.Dear Mr. Mitsuhiro IKEHARA, the Deputy Director-

General for International Affairs, Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) / Se-nior Deputy Secretary-General, Japanese National Com-mission for UNESCO.Dear Visiting Professors and participants of the

UNESCO Chair Field School in Shimane University 2019,Dear distinguished guests and colleagues, Ladies and

Gentlemen,

Fig. 4 Underground exhibition hall of The Sanbe-Azukihara BuriedForest Museum

Fig. 5 Participates in the Shitsumi Dam

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 3 of 8

On behalf of Shimane University, I would like to ex-press our warmest greetings to all of the participants ofthe UNESCO Chair Field School in Shimane University2019, and welcome you all to Shimane Prefecture, Japan.Geo-disaster Reduction is always a hot topic in Japan.

Located at the joint position of great tectonic plates, andthe passing path of Typhoon, Japan often suffers fromearthquake, Tsunamis, volcano eruption, flooding and

landslides. Located in the western side of Japan, ShimanePrefecture has a long history to fight with flooding andlandslides in the mountainous area, and there is also tsu-nami record along the coast line of Japan Sea.Shimane University has made great effort to enforce the

scientific study on geo-disaster reduction, and made greatcontribution to the local community for disaster preven-tion. Leading by Prof. Fawu Wang, Shimane University

Fig. 6 Group photo of the participates of the UNESCO Chair 2019 Field School on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction

Table 1 Lists of the presentation in the UNESCO Chair 2019 field school

No. Title Presenter Affiliation

1 Rockslides and rock avalanches in Central Asia: study of pastevents for better assessment of future hazards

Alexander Strom Geodynamics ResearchCenter, Russia

2 A new technology for prediction and monitoring of landslides Manchao He China University of MiningTechnology, Beijing

3 Landslide monitoring and early warning at the basin scale Filippo Catani Florence University, Italy

4 Modelling of flowslides and debris avalanches in natural orengineered slopes

Sabatino Cuomo Salerno University, Italy

5 Engineering Seismology, seismic noise measurements andseismological applications on volcanoes and landslides

Léna Cauchie Liege University, Belgium

6 Geo-disasters induced by the recent earthquakes in the world Masakatsu Miyajima Kanazawa University, Japan

7 Marine engineering geology: in-situ test and long-term observation Yonggang Jia & Hongxian Shan Ocean University of China

8 Environmental geology and engineering geology problems inpermafrost regions of Eastern China under the background ofclimate change

Wei Shan & Ying Guo Northeast Forest University, China

9 Landslide disaster reduction in Loess area, China Tonglu Li Chang’an University, China

10 Advanced Seismic Designs of Buildings in Japan Seismic Isolationand Response Control Method

Yutaka Nakamura Shimane University, Japan

11 Landslide investigations in natural and cultural heritage sites in Peru Vit Vilímek Charles University in Prague,Czech Republic

12 Reconstruction of paleo tsunamis hydrodynamic characteristicsfrom the magnetic properties of their deposits

Patrick Wassmer Université de Strasbourg, France

13 The implementation of an international standard for multi disastersearly warning system

Teuku Faisal Fathani Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

14 Prediction of long runout and rapid landslides Fawu Wang Shimane University, Japan

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 4 of 8

successfully applied the UNESCO Chair on Geoenviron-mental Disaster Reduction in 2017, and we officially estab-lish the UNESCO Chair in Shimane University withUNESCO in 2018. To support this activity, we establishedthe Center for Natural Disaster Reduction Education andResearch. The field school in one of the major activities ofthe center and the Chair.We understand that the purpose of the UNESCO

Chair is to promote international inter-university co-operation and networking to enhance institutional cap-acities through knowledge sharing and collaborativework. In this field school, besides our staff working ongeo-disasters, we invited 14 active and famous professorsfrom 8 countries to give lectures, and we invited 24 stu-dents and young scholars to attend the field school. Inthe two-day field works already conducted, I believe youhave examined the situation in Shimane Prefecture. Ihope you can give some suggestions and advices to us toreduce the geo-disasters in Shimane Prefecture, and we

can discuss more on how to reduce the geo-disastersworldwide more effectively.Geoenvironmental Geo-disaster Reduction is important,

but not simple. I believe, through this kind of field school,through field works and lecturers, the participants canlearn from each other, and make a strong network to dealwith the complicated geo-disaster problems, and make ourcontributions for the disaster reduction all over the world.Finally, I hope all of the participants can enjoy your

staying in our beautiful city, enjoy our food, and enjoyour history and culture.Thank you and welcome!

2) Congratulatory remarks by Mr. MitsuhiroIKEHARA, Deputy Director-General for Inter-national Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) / SeniorDeputy Secretary-General, Japanese National Com-mission for UNESCO

President Dr. Yasunao Hattori,Project Leader Professor Fawu Wang,UNESCO Director Dr. Miguel Clusener-Godt,Ladies and gentlemen,I would first like to express my sincere congratulations

on the holding of this field school by the Shimane Uni-versity UNESCO Chair on Geoenvironmental DisasterReduction.Established in 1992, the UNESCO Chairs and

UNITWIN Programme aims at the promotion of inter-national inter-university cooperation and networking. Itfurther aims at enhancing the capacities of higher educa-tion institutions through the exchange and sharing ofknowledge across borders within these international net-works. At present, over 780 higher education institutionsin 116 countries worldwide are participating in thisUNESCO Chairs Programme. At present, there are two

Fig. 7 Discussion between Professor Manchao He and students afterthe presentation

Fig. 8 Group photo of the students with certificates

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 5 of 8

UNITWIN universities, and nine UNESCO Chairs uni-versities in Japan.Established in 2018, the Shimane University UNESCO

Chair on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction promoteseducation, research, and international academic exchangesfor the reduction of geoenvironmental disasters in orderto build a strong relationship between the environmentand society. This program has the very fundamental aimof attempting to realize a society that is safe and securefor all people. Its activities are also very important fromthe perspective of their contribution to the achieving ofthe SDGs. Precisely because Japan is impacted by numer-ous natural disasters such as the recent powerful earth-quakes and torrential rains that have caused so muchdamage, geoenvironmental disaster reduction is a field inwhich Japan can play a leading global role.I have heard that many researchers and graduate stu-

dents from across Asia and Europe are participating inthis year’s field school. I expect that the participants willbe able to make use of what they have learned at thisfield school to contribute to the reduction of.geoenvironmental disasters in their own countries.I also hope that, as a UNESCO Chair, Shimane University

will continue to disseminate and share the educational andresearch outcomes you have achieved up to now, and I lookforward to seeing the efforts of your university receivingfurther international recognition.Finally, I would like to express my highest respects to all

of you gathered here for your efforts to hold this FieldSchool, and I sincerely hope that the activities of theShimane University UNESCO Chair will advance fromnow and achieve every success. Thank you very much.

3) Opening speech by Dr. Miguel CLÜSENER GODT,the Director of the Division of Ecological and EarthScience, UNESCO

Dear President of Shimane University, Prof Hattori;Dean of the Faculty of Natural Science and Technology,Dr. Hiromitsu; Deputy director of Japan NatCom forUNESCO, Mr. Ikehara, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distin-guished guests,It gives me a great pleasure to address you all at the

Opening Ceremony of the Field School organized byShimane University. I would like to particularly thank ProfYasunao Hattori, President of the Shimane University forinviting me to the worldwide centre of excellence on geo-hazards risk management. I also would like to thank Prof.Fawu Wang, Director of the Research Centre on NaturalDisaster Reduction and Head Professor of the Dept. ofGeoscience, Faculty of Science & Engineering, for organiz-ing this ceremony.The 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015 by the United

Nations, represents a significant step forward in terms

of recognizing science, technology and innovation(STI) as a driving force for sustainable developmentin its three pillars, environmental, social and eco-nomic. As the only UN agency that includes sciencein its mandate, UNESCO finds itself at the heart ofthis initiative. It implements its activities through itsglobal network of field offices, international scientificprogrammes, centres, institutes, and the UNESCOChairs and UNITWIN Networks.The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme is cele-

brating its 25th anniversary in 2017. Today, there aremore than 700 UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Net-works around the world, and more than 170 of thesespecialise in the fields covered by the Natural SciencesSector of UNESCO. They provide a unique scientific ex-pertise in the United Nations context and significantglobal, regional and local impacts, in a wide array ofrelevant fields. The UNESCO Chairs and UNITWINNetworks in Natural Sciences have an important role toplay in the shared efforts to link science, policy and soci-ety through adopting open science practices to imple-ment the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development andother United Nations development agendas.Every year, disasters caused by natural hazards affect

millions of people around the world. The resultant hu-man losses are tragic and highlight the vulnerabilitiesshared by our societies.Recent events have illustrated the devastating effects

of natural hazards.

� The State of Kerala in India, for example, experiencedin August 2018, the worst episode of flooding since1924. Many hundreds of people lost their lives andmore than 200,000 had to be evacuated.

� In Japan, in the summer of 2018, 221 people died asa result of flooding in the west of the country, and153 persons as a result of a heatwave.

� Indonesia has tragically been struck by anearthquake and a tsunami: human losses stand forthe moment at over 1400 people.

Economic losses are estimated at approximately $250billion to $300 billion per year. The financial impact hadconsiderable implications in densely populated areas.During the last decade, geo-hazards, especially earth-

quakes were the biggest cause of death among naturalhazards. Japan is unfortunately infamous for its prone-ness to natural hazards. It is striking to know thataround 20% of large-scale earthquakes occur in Japanwhile the country covers only 0.25% of the land area ofthe planet. In addition, because of geographical, topo-graphical and meteorological conditions, Japan is subjectto frequent natural hazards, such as torrential rains, ty-phoons and heavy snowfalls.

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 6 of 8

UNESCO operates at the interface between naturaland social sciences, education, culture and communica-tion playing a vital role in constructing a global cultureof resilient communities. UNESCO plays a vital roleamong the UN systems to support Member States to im-plement the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduc-tion (DRR) 2015–2030. UNESCO supports MemberStates on DRR through a) establishing / strengtheningplatforms for knowledge exchange and cooperationamong experts, b) strengthening capacities for disasterrisk reduction (DRR), c) making disaster risk reduction(DRR) a priority through policy recommendations.UNESCO’s approach is multi-disciplinary within UNES-CO’s wide mandates.For an example of expert networking, the seismology

and seismic engineering platform has developed 2 tech-nical guidelines to secure building safety against earth-quakes that we are using in our projects in Latin America.The UNESCO Chair programme is also a good exampleof expert networking and I would like to express the high-est appreciation on the establishment of the UNESCOchair by Shimane University as a centre of excellence fo-cusing on the nexus of the Geo-environmental DisasterReduction Improving the Relationship between Geo-environment and Society.For an example of capacity building, UNESCO developed

a multi-hazards risk assessing school facility tool calledVISUS and we have assessed more than 1500 schools in 9countries. More than 500,000 children and teachers wouldbe saved by the assessment. The UNESCO chair of UdineUniversity supports UNESCO in this context.For an example of policy recommendation, UNESCO

works on the EU funded project OPERANDUM to de-velop the efficiency and effectiveness of ecosystem DRRsolution to multi-stakeholders including decision makers.Our division also works on the sustainable usage of

natural resources notably through the Man and the Bio-sphere Programme and the International Geoscienceand Geoparks Programme. I would like to share withyou our programmes as well.To understand and address the key challenges facing our

world, the MAB Programme, through its World Networkof Biosphere Reserves - which currently counts 686 sites in122 countries all over the world, including 20 transbound-ary sites - and its regional and thematic networks, will stra-tegically address the SDGs 2030 through sustainabledevelopment actions in biosphere reserves. This is carriedout in partnership with all sectors of society, to ensure thewell-being of people and their environment.The MAB Programme is an important tool to main-

stream sustainable development at all levels, integratingeconomics, social and environmental aspects and recog-nizing their vital interlinkages, in order to achieve sus-tainable development in all its dimensions.

It is my great pleasure to point out that Japan has alwaysbeen an important partner in the MAB (Man and the Bio-sphere) Programme. The country has nine biosphere re-serves in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves andrecently proposed Kobushi as a new Biosphere Reserve.The proposed area is located in central Honshu Island ofthe Japanese archipelago, spanning an area that includesparts of the three prefectures of Saitama, Yamanashi, andNagano, as well as Tokyo Metropolis. It may be interestingto mention that the site has established well-functioningforms of cooperation and partnership with universities.By connecting local actions and global challenges, and

the role of local culture as a crucial tool to achieve glo-bal sustainability, the UNESCO Global Geoparks canalso be considered as best practice examples and asource of inspiration for SDGs. UNESCO Global Geo-parks are living, working landscapes with exceptionalgeological heritage where science and local communitiesengage in a mutually beneficial way.There are 140 UNESCO Global Geoparks within 38

Member states, covering a total area of 250,000 km2. OkiIsland just across the sea is a UNESCO Global Geopark,where our former ADG Flavia Schlegel visited in 2017.We have learnt that there are a number of programs thataim to raise awareness about the sustainable use and pres-ervation of local resources such as sustainable educationalprograms, from pre-elementary school up to secondaryschool. I wish that you all will have a chance to visit theUNESCO Global Geopark or Biosphere Reserve.Through the adoption of the SDGs, World Heritage,

tangible or intangible, cultural, natural or geological, isrecognised as a driver and enabler of sustainable develop-ment. It is worth to continue activities which focus on thecomplementarity of various UNESCO designationschemes (Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage sites,UNESCO Global Geoparks), which are called to work to-gether in the support of the Agenda 2030 implementation.To conclude my opening remarks, UNESCO is com-

mitted to playing an active role to develop andstrengthen collaboration with you for disaster resilience.We are ready to cooperate with you. After the fieldworks in the last few days in the Iwami Silver Mine andactive volcano Mt Sanbe, I wish that all the lecturestoday will provide you with a good theoretical perspec-tive on geohazard disaster risk reduction.Thank you very much for your attention and I am

looking forward to continuing fruitful cooperation.

4) Closing speech by Dr. Akishiga YUKIKUNI,Trustee and Vice President of Shimane University

At first, I would like to say thanks for the successfulcompletion of the training of the UNESCO chair withyour cooperation.

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Japan has typhoon in summer and heavy snow in win-ter. Many natural disasters occur throughout the year,including landslide disasters caused by heavy rainfall andcollapse of houses caused by heavy snow. In addition,there are many damages caused by earthquakes and tsu-namis. However, Japanese people are always familiarwith nature and stand up to disasters without giving up.Japanese people feel sadness and beauty in changingevents, as many Japanese like falling cherry blossoms. Ithink this is also an emotion acquired in a country withmany natural disasters. Along with studying natural di-sasters, please also learn about Japanese culture andJapanese way of thinking.Finally, I hope all persons gathering here are good at

health and developing good future.Congratulation today.

Authors’ contributionsFW made the working plan and led the activity. FW and MC-G wrote andapproved the final manuscript. ZD provided the figures in the manuscript. Allauthors read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author details1Department of Earth Science, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane690-8504, Japan. 2Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, UNESCO, Matsue,Japan. 3Center for Natural Disaster Research and Education, ShimaneUniversity, Matsue, Shimane 690-8504, Japan.

Received: 10 July 2019 Accepted: 30 July 2019

Publisher’s NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affiliations.

Wang et al. Geoenvironmental Disasters (2019) 6:13 Page 8 of 8

AbstractIntroductionField worksOpening ceremonyAcademic lecturesAuthors’ contributionsCompeting interestsAuthor detailsPublisher’s Note